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Arid Land Geography ›› 2022, Vol. 45 ›› Issue (2): 333-345.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000–6060.2021.165

• Climatology and Hydrology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Drought characteristics and risk hazard in China based on multidimensional Copula model

ZHANG Shizhe1,2(),ZHU Xiufang1,2,3(),LIU Tingting2,XU Kun2,GUO Rui2   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Environmental Change and Natural Disaster, Ministry of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    2. Institute of Remote Sensing Science and Engineering, Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
    3. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Jointly Sponsored by Beijing Normal University and Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100875, China
  • Received:2021-04-13 Revised:2021-08-03 Online:2022-03-25 Published:2022-04-02
  • Contact: Xiufang ZHU E-mail:202021051191@mail.bnu.edu.cn;zhuxiufang@bnu.edu.cn

Abstract:

Drought is one of the most serious natural disasters that human society is facing, which substantially affects agriculture and animal husbandry. China is a region with high incidents of drought disasters globally. For drought monitoring, early warning and ecological environment protection in China, analyzing the characteristics of drought and assessing its occurrence probability is crucial. The standardized precipitation-evapotranspiration index (SPEI) series at 1-, 3-, 6-, and 12-month timescales were calculated using the daily surface climate data set of the National Meteorological Data Center from 1980 to 2019. After comparing and analyzing the fluctuations in the SPEI series at different timescales, the 3-month-timescale SPEI (SPEI-3) was selected to identify historical drought events and extract three characteristic variables (drought duration, drought severity, and intensity peak) based on the theory of runs. SPEI-3 can fully reflect the seasonal dryness and humidity and is commonly used in agricultural drought monitoring. Then, using two- and three-dimensional Copula models, the joint distribution between two- and three-dimensional drought characteristic variables was constructed to estimate the occurrence probabilities of drought events under different combinations of drought duration and drought severity and those under different combinations of drought duration, drought severity, and intensity peak, respectively. Finally, the return periods of a single drought characteristic variable and the joint return periods of different types of “high-intensity-peak drought” were calculated. The results show that “mild drought” and “moderate drought” are most likely to occur in China from the perspective of drought severity. In terms of drought duration, “cross-season drought” is most likely to occur in China, and “drought over half a year” is most likely to occur in the northern arid region compared with other agricultural regions. The occurrence probability of “high-intensity-peak drought” is much less than that of “low-intensity-peak drought”, and its probability increases with increasing drought duration. The joint return periods of “high-intensity-peak drought” in the North China Plain, middle and lower Yangtze River Plain, and southern China are generally shorter than those in other regions. Short duration (“monthly drought”, “intra-season drought”, and “cross-season drought”) and low severity (“mild drought” and “moderate drought”) are the dominant factors for the joint return periods of various drought events in China. In this study, multidimensional drought characteristic analysis and hazard assessment were conducted nationwide, which are conducive for macroscopic understanding of the overall drought risk pattern in China and provide reference for drought control and prevention.

Key words: drought, hazard, return period, Copula